Consumo de álcool e seus efeitos no desempenho escolar

Abstract

Alcohol use and school underachievement are two important challenges for youths in many countries. Although both problems often appear associated with each other, so far little is known about the meaning and direction of this relationship. In this paper, we aimed to examine the effects of several patterns of serious drinking on the academic attainment across adolescence, in Portugal. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study in which a large sample of boys and girls were followed-up from the early grade levels in elementary school until the age of 17-18 years, when they were expected to graduate from secondary school. Information on alcohol use was gathered through several items included in a questionnaire of self-reported antisocial behaviour, whereas data on academic attainment were obtained through several items of an interview administered to the participants in this study, at the end of adolescence, or from the last schools they attended during the follow-up. Results showed that alcohol drinking was already present in the elementary school and increased with age/grade level, to become almost normative at the end of adolescence, particularly among males. As to the negative effects of alcohol use, there were no significant differences in academic attainment between those who abstained form drinking and those who experimented alcohol sometimes during adolescence. In addition, when we compared groups involved in more serious patterns of drinking (e.g. early starters, intensive drinkers or persistent drinkers) with their peers, there were some significant differences in grade retentions, which disappeared when we controlled for other childhood factors such as early learning difficulties or attention problems reported by teachers, in elementary schools. Altogether, the findings of this study do not provide strong support to the view that alcohol use in childhood and adolescence has a direct negative effect in academic achievement. It would be interesting to examine whether the same pattern of results will be found in groups with more serious forms of alcohol use (e.g. alcohol dependence and juvenile alcoholism) or when we assess the same people in their early adulthood.